Bike Commute Diaries: Will Stop to Shop

23Oct

What can I say? I’m a woman. When I see a new, interesting-looking store with a sale sign in the window and folks walking in, I have to stop and see what the fuss is. Fortunately, it’s a lot easier to pull over and park on University Avenue when you’re on a bike than in a car. Let me rephrase that: not just easier, possible.

About the Bike Commute Diaries: Launched in May 2012 for National Bike Month, this series explores the unexpected and surprising things I’ve learned about bicycling for transportation.

Palo Alto spent a lot of money building parking garages downtown ($30K+ per spot), so it’s not hard to park. That is, assuming you aren’t hell-bent on getting a street spot, a behavior of several of my former co-workers that I still can’t explain (It’s better when you win it?). The new garage on Bryant is never full and it’s centrally located so I couldn’t get why they wouldn’t use it.

On this particular evening I was meeting a friend for dinner on the other side of downtown and only had a few minutes to spare. If I had to park and walk I never would have made it to dinner on time.

Ah yes. I know the scene. You can bike and park anywhere. Added benefits are that you can easily keep an eye on your two-wheeled love as as opposed to parking a car in a lot or garage. My favorite thing to do is push my bike (cycling not allowed) up our lively pedestrian mall and lock it outside my favorite local coffee shop. I sit in the window, reading, blogging, and people watching – of course with a delicious cup a joe. Can’t do that with a car unless it’s at Dunkin Donuts.

Nearly 32,000 Americans die in car crashes annually. 80% of car crashes are PREVENTABLE. If the TOASTER was killing that many people we'd think it was ridiculous. We'd un-plug it and say, let's Fix The Toaster.